


The Rose of Hotland, The Sunflower of Snowdin

by NoSleepUntilVacation



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Character Study, Cute, Flowers, For a Friend, Happy, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Love, M/M, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-24
Updated: 2019-01-24
Packaged: 2019-10-15 18:00:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17533508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoSleepUntilVacation/pseuds/NoSleepUntilVacation
Summary: Sometimes all you need is a beautiful heart in order to catch the eye of the one you admire, even if they're the most beautiful person in the eyes of your society.(Or: yet another Papyton fic from yours truly, written as a birthday gift for my friend lesbianpapyrus.)





	The Rose of Hotland, The Sunflower of Snowdin

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lesbianpapyrus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesbianpapyrus/gifts).



> Happy birthday, Gem! :D I really hope you like this.

It really wasn't surprising that roses were Mettaton's favorite flowers, considering that the man himself was like a rose in many ways.

These flowers symbolized passion, and anyone who ever saw even one of Mettaton's shows knew that he was incredibly passionate about performing for the masses. He had fun playing whatever roles he needed to play in movies or scripted shows, he hosted game shows in such a way that his quips and commentary were easily half the fun of watching them, and whenever he sang on stage, he threw so much passion into it that he could easily engage the crowds in even the cheesiest songs.

Roses also had thorns, as anyone who ever tried to pick one found out the hard way. And Mettaton not only had a sharp wit, but he wasn't afraid to use it, either. Given how much he loved to promote himself and celebrate his successes, some of his critics had the idea that he was one of those people who would throw tantrums if anyone said even the slightest negative thing towards them. They ended up learning the hard way that he had quite a talent for not only letting insults roll off of him, but also for turning them back on his hecklers from time to time. For just one example, he certainly scared off quite a few would-be hecklers from even trying to put him down when, on one episode of one of his game shows, he ran into a rather rude caller on the viewer call-in segment of the show. The trivia question he had asked was about himself, and when the person whose call he took ended up throwing a bunch of insults at him, he very calmly deadpanned, "This question was about me, not about you." And aside from that, anyone who tried to hurt any of his family and friends certainly found out why Mettaton was called a killer robot; he had never taken any lives (and hopefully, he would never have to), but he definitely knew how to fight.

Even beyond that, roses were widely considered one of the most beautiful kinds of flowers. And even though beauty was in the eye of the beholder, a wide variety of monsters agreed that Mettaton was likely the most beautiful monster they had even seen - and once everyone made it to the surface, there were many humans who found themselves inclined to agree. Whether he looked like a rectangle on a wheel or like a glam rocker, he carried himself so confidently that many of his viewers couldn't help but look up to him; it certainly didn't hurt that he genuinely cared about his fans, often encouraging them to explore their own beauty.

But thanks to his celebrity status, Mettaton often seemed out of reach of most people - not unlike roses with their thorns. Given how often the topic of love came up in his shows and songs, many people couldn't help but wonder, just what was he looking for in a potential partner? Did he want someone who was as beautiful and charismatic as he was? Did he want a romantic person to sweep him off his feet, or did he want a more rebellious person - someone who wouldn't be afraid to bring him back down to earth when his ego threatened to get the better of him?

What kind of person could make the star of all monsterkind, the most beautiful person in Hotland - and maybe even the entire Underground - weak at the knees?

* * *

If someone were to walk up to Papyrus and ask him, "Papyrus, what's your favorite flower?", he would have an easy answer to that question: his favorite flower was his friend Flowery.

That being said, he did still like other flowers; they came in all sorts of colors and designs, and they could make any place look more beautiful.

One time, he was hanging out with his cool friend Frisk, when he suddenly had a random question on his mind. Having thought about one of his other friends being a flower, he'd looked at Frisk and asked, "If I were a flower, what kind would I be? I probably wouldn't be a tulip, because I'm a skeleton and we don't have lips."

Frisk gave it some thought before giving him their answer: he would probably be a sunflower.

Indeed, Papyrus had quite a few similarities with sunflowers. The most obvious similarity on first sight was the fact that Papyrus was very tall and he loved to wear bright colors. But anyone who got to know him would notice a few more similarities. Sunflowers were very cheerful flowers, and Papyrus himself was also quite cheerful. Sure, he would sometimes get annoyed whenever a small, white dog stole his bones or whenever his brother slacked off from work and had nothing to say for himself other than a bunch of bad puns - but he was only angry at their behavior and not at them as people. In fact, he often wanted to help Sans cheer up whenever life threatened to get him down, and this was even a large part of why he encouraged Sans to work more - it would probably help him take his mind off of whatever was bothering him.

His cheerfulness also extended to things he was interested in. Whenever he was having a bad day, one of his favorite things to do was try to make a new puzzle; it had been one of his biggest passions even back when he was a babybones, and he never lost his love for it. If he couldn't do that for whatever reason, he still had a lot of other things that helped him cheer up. Making spaghetti, reading about cars, calling his cool friends, watching Mettaton's shows... sometimes even just daydreaming could provide him with hours of fun. There was no extinguishing Papyrus' passion about these things (and if anyone tried, Sans wouldn't let them hear the end of it).

Papyrus was also very friendly - so friendly that it was nearly a fault. He certainly loved to put himself over, calling himself "the Great Papyrus" on a regular basis, but it didn't mean he thought he was the only person who deserved to be called great. Far from it, in fact; he saw the potential for good in everyone he met, and not only did he believe in them, he wanted to make sure they knew it. Not even finding out that some of them made mistakes was enough to shake his faith in them; he believed very heavily in second chances, and the thought of ever outright giving up on someone held no appeal to him. While this did have the side effect of making him a little gullible, the people in his life still appreciated his caring nature. Frisk, Sans, Undyne, Alphys... all of them believed in Papyrus, especially since Papyrus believed in them right back.

Sometimes, Papyrus would dream of being in a real romantic relationship one day. Whoever his datemate was, he would always want them to know that he cherished them with all his heart. He wanted to be the kind of person who would give little surprises to his partner on a bad day, who would cheer them up whenever they doubted themselves, who would hold them close and bathe them in a shower of kisses (well, they would have to be skeleton kisses, but the point still stood) and make them feel safe and comfortable, like he was their home...

And not only did he eventually get his wish, but he got it from one of the last people he - or anyone else - ever would have expected.

* * *

Papyrus opened the garage and drove inside, the rain becoming little more than a distant muffle as he closed the garage door behind himself. Turning off the car, he headed inside the house proper. It was strangely dark for this time of day; the man he loved was home, right? He couldn't hear the sound of the television, though.

He walked through the hallway, looking around. "Metta?"

"In here, sweetheart!" came the reply from the living room.

As Papyrus walked in, he saw that Mettaton was indeed there, draped on the couch and mostly covered by a blanket, as if he were watching TV. The set itself displayed nothing but a black screen, though.

Mettaton looked at him with a sparkle in his eyes. "Hello, beautiful. The power went out a little while ago, so I've just been listening to the rain."

"Oh no! I hope the power comes back soon!" Considering that Mettaton needed access to electricity in order to charge his body, power outages would definitely throw a wrench into his sleeping schedule if they weren't resolved soon.

"Fortunately, the electric company said it should be resolved by tonight. But in the meantime..." He grinned and pulled up the blanket a little more. "Would you like to cuddle while we wait for the power to come back on?"

"Absolutely!" Papyrus reinforced this with a nod. "Just let me change my clothes first. Cuddling in wet clothes seems a little counterproductive, especially considering the weather."

"Of course, beautiful."

As Papyrus headed upstairs to do that, he thought about Mettaton's words. Even though Mettaton called everyone "beautiful", something about it felt extra-special when he said it to Papyrus. It would have been so easy for it to come across as just words, but the warm tone behind it, often coupled with a gentle smile and maybe even a soft touch, set Papyrus' pulse aflutter. He had no reason to believe that Mettaton was lying when he called him beautiful - and given that Papyrus was one of the many people who thought Mettaton was the most beautiful person they had ever seen, this absolutely felt like a dream come true.

Back downstairs, Mettaton continued listening to the rain until he heard Papyrus' footsteps as he quickly descended the stairs. He pulled back the blanket, only putting it back when Papyrus joined him on the couch and cuddled up with him.

As he gently took Papyrus' hand, caressing the bones with a smooth, metallic thumb, he smiled. "Did you have a lovely day?"

Papyrus nodded. "I fixed a lot of cars today! No malfunction was a match for the Great Papyrus!"

"Ooh! It sounds like it was a very productive day indeed!" Mettaton kissed his forehead. "I would love to hear more."

"Wowie!" Papyrus had a huge grin as he began the first of his stories. "Well, there was one customer who had an electric car..."

Just the enthusiastic tone of Papyrus' voice made Mettaton feel warm deep down as he cuddled closer and listened to the exciting tales of his sugar skull's adventures in auto repair. Sometimes, when Mettaton was feeling worried or upset, all he needed to do to calm down was spend some time with Papyrus, who felt like a ray of sunshine even on grey days like this one. Talking to Mettaton, listening to Mettaton talk, holding him... Papyrus certainly knew many ways to make Mettaton smile, and those were just a few of them.

Mettaton closed his eyes, his thoughts drifting a little towards a memory of when he and Papyrus talked about their favorite flowers. Of course, Mettaton still loved roses, and Papyrus still considered Flowery to be his favorite flower of all time. But Papyrus had also mentioned that he'd been told in the past that he was a lot like a sunflower.

And the more Mettaton thought about it, the more it made sense to him.


End file.
